dear op,
you probably didn't realize you were walking into a hornets nest by simply bringing up naturopathy. I am a premed and actually considered nd school for a long time. If you find an accredited 4-year program, the first two years of hard science (curriculum accredited regionally, at the doctoral level) is solid. I've actually met a few mds who graduated and went through nd programs later at an accelerated pace, given their backgrounds. Their feeling was that the academic sciences were excellent and even on par with that of regular medical schools.
The problem with nd training, however, lies in two places: One is an additional heavy reliance on modalities that have either not been scientifically evaluated or have been evaluated and are not accepted by the mainstream. The debate here usually ends up somewhere between accusations of pseudo-scientific methods on one side and finger-pointing to big pharma and dogmatic rigidity on the other. Meh.
In my opinion, nds have a lot to offer, but the absolute gigantic deal-breaker is their lack of sufficient clinical training. They're required to make approximately 300 patient contacts during their clinical "internship" which occurs across 3 or 4 4-hour shifts per week. That's a "residency" of 12-16 hours per week (3 patients per 4 hour shift) for one year. That's all that's required to gain a license as a primary care provider in the states that license nds. (in oregon they can even prescribe narcotics.) obviously pales in comparison to the 3+ years at 80 hours per week for a standard md/do residency.
That said, this is the direction medicine is taking in america. In states that license nds, their scope of practice is roughly equivalent to that of a nurse practitioner or pa--often working autonomously, prescribing meds, diagnosing, billing insurance, etc. But they seem to work almost exclusively out of private practice due to their lack of clinical training and, therefore, acceptance into hospital settings. As a result, if you meet a recently graduated nd, in my experience, you will not be impressed. However, those who have managed to survive 20 years through active practice have attained the experience of most doctors and often have a lot to offer their patients. Those nds, although rare, are brilliant individuals.
Another significant problem in the nd community is the current lack of competitiveness to enter nd school and, therefore, lower quality student body. Currently, admission to nd school is a cakewalk compared to md/do school. If nds are licensed more widely and compensated better for their work, these schools will attract and graduate higher quality students. The trend is upward, but it seems like it might be some time before nd schools attain the level of integrity necessary to graduate competent physicians.
Finally, on a positive note, they actually study nutrition on a biochemical level for several years. Seems like a no-brainer for a medical school curriculum.
My two cents, even though i can sense the impending barrage for speaking a little truth...
